CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- An opinion poll released Monday showing Gov. Joe Manchin's lead over Morgantown businessman John Raese narrowing to six points in the U.S. Senate special election drew differing reactions from the two campaigns.

The poll of 500 likely West Virginia voters conducted Sunday for Rasmussen Reports, gave Manchin a 48 to 42 percent lead over Raese, with the remaining 10 percent either undecided or favoring other candidates.

A similar Rasmussen poll conducted in late July gave Manchin a 51-35 percent lead, leading the polling firm to shift the race Monday from "solid Democratic" to "leans Democratic."

Raese campaign manager Jim Dornan said that while the poll is just a "snapshot in time," it does seem to confirm that momentum is building for the Raese campaign.

"We're beginning to level the playing field, we believe," Dornan said. "We're very encouraged. We think folks are responding to John's message."

At Manchin campaign headquarters Monday, spokeswoman Sara Payne Scarbro said the campaign considers the primary election results Saturday as the more significant poll numbers.

"Coming from Rasmussen, the numbers did not surprise us," she said, adding, "They are known as Republican pollsters, so it doesn't surprise us."

Publications including Time magazine and Pollster.com have criticized past Rasmussen polling for skewing Republican. Company founder Scott Rasmussen worked for George W. Bush in his 2004 presidential race.

However, Dornan said the most significant numbers in Sunday's polling are the extremely high disapproval ratings for President Obama. It found that 70 percent of West Virginians polled disapprove of Obama's job performance, and of those, 64 percent strongly disapprove.

"Obama is an anchor around the governor's neck," Dornan said. "The president and his party have set down policies that have been a disaster for the country. The people of West Virginia recognize that."

Manchin in past weeks has made statements distancing himself from the president on issues such as clean-energy initiatives and cap-and-trade.

In his victory speech Saturday evening, Manchin said he will be better able to make a case in Washington that coal should continue to play a major role in the nation's energy future.

"It would be one thing to just say, 'I'm against something,'" he said Saturday, commenting on Obama's energy policy. "It's another to say, 'That is wrong, and let me show you a better way to do it.'"

Manchin did virtually no advertising in the special primary election, while Raese had a heavy rotation of television and radio spots, all with the theme that he will not be a rubber-stamp for Obama.

Dornan said that while the campaign ads may have helped close the gap in Sunday's polling, it was not the primary factor.

"Manchin's name ID has got to be about 99 percent, and ours wasn't," Dornan said of the advertising blitz to improve Raese's name recognition among West Virginia voters.

Scarbro said the more significant poll was Saturday's primary election, where Manchin captured 73 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary.

"We are in solid shape heading into the general election, and we are going to continue to campaign hard and communicate our message," she said.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.